Try as I might to use documentation supplied in the wiki to create a bootable USB drive that would work with a DFI P965 motherboard (not an "old" motherboard by any stretch of the imagination), all efforts ended in either receiving the message "Boot error" as soon as syslinux would try to boot, or the USB flash drive simply not being seen as bootable by the bios.

 

What I did find is that, with the correct parameters, makebootfat is able to get things working perfectly.

 

I've attached the files I used for creating my Unraid USB flash drive, and the .bat files I created for getting the job done.  I give these with no warranty.  As with any software that messes around with formatting, partition tables and master boot records, use at your own risk.

 

Follow the instructions in "readme.txt".

 

To use these scripts:

1) Extract contents of unraid_makebootfat.zip into folder, perserving folder structure

2) Place contents of unraid into the "unraid" folder

   a)  Example: copy bzimage, bzroot, license.txt, memtest, menu.c32, readme.txt, 
       syslinux.cfg and the entire config folder from unRAID Server 4.3.3.zip to the "unraid" folder 
       you just created by unzipping unraid_makebootfat.zip

3) Remove ALL USB storage devices from PC.  This includes USB HDDs and USB card readers 
    (internal ones can be temporarily removed by selecting "Safely Remove Hardware" - (thanks cludwig)).

4) Connect ONLY the USB flash device that you will be installing unraid on

5) Run the appropriate .bat file

   a) make_USB-ZIP_compatible_unraid.bat  - This works well with BIOS that have a USB-ZIP boot option

   b) make_USB-FDD_compatible_unraid.bat  - Works for BIOS that have USB-FDD boot option (may be issues with this, please use USB-ZIP .bat)

   c) make_USB-HDD_compatible_unraid.bat  - Untested. 

6) Your bootable unRAID USB drive is now ready.  Configure your bios to boot from USB.  
   If it fails, try all 3 options (a, b & c) from 5, above.

 

UPDATE Sep. 1 2008 6:27am :  Updated scripts to version 1.1 - Modified and tested USB-FDD .bat file.  USB-FDD now works on my motherboard,  as does USB-ZIP.

 

UPDATE Sep. 6 2008 6:08am :  USB-FDD .bat will make the drive bootable, but may still not work correctly.  It appears that bzimage/bzroot will load and bring you to the login prompt, but the FDD filesystem does not mount, stopping unraid from reading any configuration files. Please use USB-ZIP instead.

Thank you very much for finding this tool, and preparing a procedure and package for it.  I've added this to the bottom of the USB Flash Drive Preparation wiki page, and I noticed it has also been added to the Best of the Forums page.

Thanks RobJ.  Searching the posts here, it seems to be a fairly common problem that in the past had no other solution but "your motherboard is not compatible, get a different motherboard".  Hopefully this will help bring a good number more motherboards into the compatibility list.

 

UPDATE Sep. 1 2008 6:27am :  Updated scripts to version 1.1 - Modified and tested USB-FDD .bat file.  USB-FDD now works on my motherboard,  as does USB-ZIP.

 

See top post for details.

 

I also have a new P45 DFI MB and used this to configure the unraid, was able to boot to unraid perfect, but working on a different issue.

I tried the usb-zip method and get this

loading bzimage

loading bzroot.....ready

no setup signature found..

 

 

and it halts at this part. Any thoughts?

no setup signature found..

and it halts at this part. Any thoughts?

 

Double check that you have correctly copied all files from unRAID Server 4.3.3.zip to the unraid folder.

 

I copied all the files from the flash drive from tom, I got the 16 HDD pro verison. I copied under windows with select all.

HA figured out the problem!!! I had TWO register key files in the unraid folder, one labeled Pro1 and Pro2, so I deleted pro2, and unraid booted formated at usb-zip.  And I updated the motherboard bios too, so might of been a combo fix either way its great, THANKS A MILLION brianbone.!!!

This worked great for me with my new Intel DP35DP motherboard. I only ran the USB-ZIP version, but it worked and unRAID booted up first try.

Hope to get some help on this one -- FDD, No Operating System

 

At least I thought I followed all the instruction here:

 

USB flash (Lexar Firefly) plugged in.

 

1. Download the unraid_makebootfat.zip to desktop

2. Extract the unraid_makebootfat.zip to files on desktop

3. Download the unRAID Server 4.3.3.zip to desktop

4. Extract the unRAID Server 4.3.3.zip to desktop

5. Move all the content of extracted unRAID Server 4.3.3 into the UNRAID folder in the Extracted unraid_makebootfat folder

("Config" folder, "bzimage" file, "bzroot" file, "license" text document, "memtest" file, "menu.c32" file, "read me" text document, "syslinux.cfg" file)

6.Double click the make_USB-ZIP_compatible_unraid file

7. Click Run on the pop-up windown

8. press any key in the pop up MS_DOS window

9. Then messages as:

"

Creating USP-ZIP compatible UNRAID disk on USB device. Please wait...

~~~~~~~Complete~~~~~~~

Set Bios to boot USB-ZIP compatible device.

Press any key to exid this window.

"

Then I just reboot thru the normal process and setting the Boot from bias as "USB-ZIP", but error message comes up as

"

FDD

No Operating System

"

 

I tried the option of make_USB-FDD_compatible_unraid, but came up with "boot error" message.

Bios does not have the USB_HDD setting, so cannot try.

 

Any Suggestions? Thanks much.

 

 

 

What motherboard & bios version are you trying this on?  What USB boot options does this bios have?

 

Are you running this on vista? (If so, perhaps try "run as administrator" on make_USB-ZIP_compatible_unraid.bat)

 

Nice!  Just got an Intel G45 motherboard and had a heck of a time getting it going until your handy tip.  Thanks!!!

Yay!  Roger that... these instructions and files worked were all else had failed.  I used the USB-HDD version of the script to get my SanDisk Cruzer to work using Unraid 4.3.3 on my Foxconn 946G27MA-8KS2H.

 

I had previously tried many approaches, and had managed to get it as far as starting up (loaded bzroot and bzimage all the way), but it always failed with the (not very unusual, I guess) inability to find the named volume UNRAID - so config files can't be found, startup scripts abort, stuck with default "Tower login:" and no web interface.

 

Running the script worked perfectly first time.

 

Thanks so much!

 

PS - Some folks might not realize that when you instruct to remove all USB flash drives, that this may also entail disabling any built-in (or plugged in) memory card readers.  It took me a couple times running the script and seeing "too many drives" messages before I realized that I had to "safely remove hardware" my in-built memory card driver (which presents as 4 different drive letters).

This worked for me too! on a Intel 975XBX motherboard.

 

Thanks! 

More details about my USB booting problems can be found here

 

Well, this solution has gotten me closer than anything else... no more DISK BOOT FAILURE errors.

 

I tried all 3 batch file variations on 1 key, but it always stayed at the "Verifying DMI Pool Data" stage.

I used bootup of USB-FDD, USB-ZIP and USB-HDD, and tried in both USB slots.

 

Tried my 512kb key with USB-FDD and USB-HDD, same problem.

Tried with USB-ZIP and was going to give up after this...

It got further and tried booting Syslinux 3.71 but then dies at

<<

Could not find the kernel image: linux

boot:

>>

 

So what do I do or try from this point on?

Edit the bootup config file?

 

It got further and tried booting Syslinux 3.71 but then dies at

<<

Could not find the kernel image: linux

boot:

>>

 

Edit the bootup config file?

 

I thought the image was supposed to be bzimage

what does your bootup config file look like?

 

 

 

The contents of syslinux.cfg are the same on the USB key as it was in the unpacked UNraid 4.3.3 package.

default menu.c32
menu title Lime Technology LLC
prompt 0
timeout 50
label unRAID OS
  menu default
  kernel bzimage
  append initrd=bzroot rootdelay=10
label Memtest86+
  kernel memtest

 

Just to verify;

 

Did you extract the contents of the unraid 4.3.3 zip file into the "unraid" folder supplied, before running the batch file?

 

So before running make_USB-ZIP_compatible_unraid.bat, you have syslinux.cfg located as follows:

\[path to make_USB-ZIP_compatible_unraid.bat]\unraid\syslinux.cfg

 

Also, how is your bios set for boot?  USB-ZIP? USB-HDD? USB-FDD?  Have you tried all three settings in bios (assuming your bios has all three settings), leaving the format of the Flash drive as USB-ZIP?

 

In my original posting on previous page...

I tried all 3 batch file variations on 1 key, but it always stayed at the "Verifying DMI Pool Data" stage.

I used bootup of USB-FDD, USB-ZIP and USB-HDD, and tried in both USB slots.

 

Yes, I unpacked the script unraid_makebootfat.zip into a directory, unpacked UNRaid 4.3.3 into the subdirectory /unraid/

 

Opened cmd box inside unraid_makebootfat, unmounted all USB drives,

ran "make_USB-ZIP_compatible_unraid" (tried others first).

For each attempt, I did not re-format since I assume that's what the batch does.

The USB key label is "UNRAID" as required.

 

make_USB-FDD_compatible_unraid.bat
make_USB-HDD_compatible_unraid.bat
make_USB-ZIP_compatible_unraid.bat
readme.txt
syslinux\gptmbr.bin
syslinux\ldlinux.bin
syslinux\ldlinux.bss
syslinux\ldlinux.sys
syslinux\makebootfat.exe
syslinux\mbr.bin
syslinux\mbrfat.bin
unraid\bzimage
unraid\bzroot
unraid\license.txt
unraid\memtest
unraid\menu.c32
unraid\readme.txt
unraid\syslinux.cfg
unraid\config\disk.cfg
unraid\config\go
unraid\config\ident.cfg
unraid\config\network.cfg
unraid\config\share.cfg

I'm stumped...   

And your boot settings in bios?  Have you tried setting it to boot from USB-ZIP, USB-HDD and USB-FDD?

 

I tried different variations with multiple entries, where USB-ZIP was first.

I also tried all 3 where they were the only one in the boot sequence (no 2nd or 3rd option).

In every case the result was the same, unable to boot/find linux.

It's strange that it still found the key when set to USB-FDD or USB-HDD, but failed with same message.

 

At this point I think it must be the motherboard, so I have already ordered an IDE-CompactFlash card

as the solution to install the O/S.

At this point I think it must be the motherboard, so I have already ordered an IDE-CompactFlash card

as the solution to install the O/S.

 

You cannot register the ide-compactflash as it will not provide a GUID (at least the last time I looked).

You can boot from this device, and it will be pretty fast, but will still require a USB-Key that provides a GUID to register.

(again, unless you can access a GUID from the ide-compact flash device.. I couldn't).

 

It IS possible to boot from a CD.

It's also possible to boot from a floppy drive using grub4dos once you copy the boot images on to the hard drive somewhere.

 

When I was testing unRAID I used a old motherboard with a kicker disk. I was also getting the:

 

Could not find the kernel image: linux

 

I partitioned the usb drive with fat16 & that fixed the problem. You might need to try that.

Try using the attached batch files (replace the original .bat files included from the top post with these) and let me know if they change anything.

 

 

THANK YOU BRAINBONE!! This got my 4gig sandisk cruzer micro to boot with my new ICH7 board.